Protecting the Middle Class --- What Does that Mean?

[NeedleCast]

I've seen several threads about various candidates and their ability to "Protect the Middle Class." I have no idea what that means. I consider myself middle class. I have a white collar job that pays a reasonable salary in one of the most expensive regions in the country (D.C. Metro). I'm not out buying a new Mercedes every year, I don't have a boat or other major luxary items. I rent a decent house not far from work inside the D.C. beltway. I don't live check to check, have health insurance and a 401K, a job I mostly enjoy and that allows me to travel frequently. I have enough money in the bank to last a few months if I were suddenly to lose my job and a skill-set that allows me to think I wouldn't be out of work long. I am the middle class.

I'm curious as to what candidates are talking about when they talk about protecting the middle class. What am I being protected from? Who do I need protection from? What does protecting the middle class mean? Is there really some substance there, or is it just a buzz-phrase?

[Taverner]

1. About as much as "national interest"

[SharonAnn]

8. If you lose your job, you'll have no health insurance, no 401-K and don't kid yourself,

it could be really hard to find another job. Oh, of course you can get an "Independent Contractor" gig where you're hired by a staffing firm to work for another company, but you'll get no health insurance, no 401-K, etc.

And lots of jobs that we thought couldn't be outsource, are being outsourced. If there's a way to save some money, organizations are considering it. If not out-sourced, then they are being in-sourced by using people with H1-B visas. That's why companies want to increase the number of H1-B visas. It's much cheaper help and the employees are "locked into" that employer.

So, middle class is probably the most vulnerable class in the United States. We do need to be protected.

Lose your job and you lose it all. And lots of people in the middle-class are losing their jobs.

[Taverner]

16. But depending on who is talking, Protecting the Middle Class means different things

Just like national interest.

Ask Lou Dobbs, and he would say it means erecting a fence around the US
Ask John Edwards, and he would say health care
Ask Rev Mike Huckabee, and he would say bibles in schools

[papau]

2. It means not allowing the shift in the burden of government costs from rich to middle class to occur

Under Bush total cost of government went up but tax on the rich went down - since someone needs to pay, the cost shifted to middle class and future generations (the vast majority of which will be middle class if the middle class is not destroyed by Bush clones).

Likewise the piece of the budget that supports the middle class is promised to not decrease relative to inflation and needy population. Under Bush the budget moved more to higher price contracts for services (the higher price to privatize helping the rich) and fewer dollars - higher amounts but lower in value after adjustment for inflation and needy population - for middle class priorities.

You might want to think about the cut back in food inspection, a "middle class benefit" cut that has occurred under Bush, and how you feel about that type of government "saving".

[blondeatlast]

3. Exactly. A robust economy is driven by the middle class who pay

a larger percentage of their income for taxes, expenses, and "luxuries" than the wealthy. Therefore it makes sense to increase the SPENDING power of the middle class to create jobs, increase government funding, and therefore opportunity for poorer Americans.

[supernova]

4. It also means a degree of security

You have it all, RIGHT NOW.

You could just as easily lose it all. And that's a huge problem because many people have, more than once.

I have been laid off twice from a well-paying profession. I am again looking to start over not by my choice. The only thing that saves me from being homeless is that I own my home and have no debt.

[NeedleCast]

7. I have a degree of security

I think that's part of being middle class. As I said in the OP, I have enough money saved to last a few months were I to be laid off. I was laid-off (actually I took an upaid leave of abscence that resulted in my being fired after a few weeks) two years ago and had several job offers inside of a few weeks. I wouldn't say I have it all either...I'm comfortable, no more.

[supernova]

12. Very nice, but

I genuinely hope your situation continues. Remember, you live in a bubble of a world. It's not the rest of the the US. I know because I lived in it too when I lived in MD and worked in DC.

The question is would you be willing to vote for progressive Dems who want to get rid of outsourcing and unfair trade policies? Would you be willing to vote for a progressive Dem who wants to enact national universal healthcare?

[NeedleCast]

17. Of course

and of course I'll be voting for a Democrat come election time. I'm not sure yet what the best method is for universal health care. As a contractor to the federal government, I see on a daily basis just how badly they can mangle the simplest of things. My idea of the best universal health care is a plan where the government has a minimum of interaction.

[DangerDave921]

13. In your boat

I have a family of four, and we make about $120k per year. I consider ourselves middle-class. We live in a 1950's rancher on 1/2 acre in the suburbs. I drive a 10-year-old Civic. Kids go to public schools for now, but we are saving for private as they get older. We go to the beach for a week each summer. We don't hurt for money, but we also don't have any lavish luxuries. I know some people would look at us and call us rich, but I feel definitely part of the middle class. All our money goes to saving for retirement and college plans for the kids. What is middle-class?

And I agree with the OP -- what the heck can any politician do to "protect" the middle class. The market does it wants to most the time regardless of governmental meddling.

[NeedleCast]

18. Thanks Danger Dave

Well said. I'm single with no one to support so my disposable income is probably a little more disposable but we do appear to be pretty much in the same boat. You say "we make about 120K/year" so I'm assuming your spouse works as well?

As someone upthread said, I'm thinking that the phrase "protect the middle class" either doesn't mean much, or means something totally different depending on which candidate you ask.

[DangerDave921]

20. thanks

My wife teaches karate part-time, but I earn the bulk of our income. She works part-time only so she can be there for the kids. We have two little ones (3 and 7). Seems like we have a lot of money on paper, but at the end of the month we're wondering where the heck did it all go?

[Two Americas]

23. upper 10%

You are in the upper 10%. You are not in any "middle." You are much closer to the bottom than to the top, while fabulously privileged when compared to most of the people in the country.

The middle class has collapsed. You are fortunate. At one time there was a much, much larger percentage of the population who enjoyed the security and income (relative, adjusted for inflation) that you do.

Protecting the middle class means strengthening labor unions, breaking up corporate monopoly and anti-trust activity, enforcing the laws against corporations, restoring the public resources, and regulations that protect them, and stopping the long sickening slide into poverty and insecurity that most Americans are experiencing.

For me, the essence of what it is to be a Democrat is summed up in these quotes from FDR:

"In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people."

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."

"We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out."

"We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him a proper security is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power."

[DangerDave921]

24. Really?

I had no idea. Sure doesn't feel like I'm living in the top 10% in the country. I worry about our finances every day -- can we afford a new car, can we afford college in 10 years, can we afford to fix up our old bathroom, etc. I would think the top 10% is pretty free and easy about money, but maybe that's not the case.

Good quotes by the way.

[Two Americas]

28. amazing isn't it?

Yes, I believe that you do worry about your finances every day. $100,000 a year is just not that much money anymore. Yet most people have slipped far, far below that. It is easy for us to get caught up in our own situation and lose perspective.

There is only 1% of the population who don't have the worries the rest of us do, and every year more and more of the wealth in the country flows into their hands as the rest of us slip farther and farther into insecurity, fear and worry, and over half of us into outright want and desperation.

[DangerDave921]

29. it is

I grew up in the 1960's. My dad had a HS education only and worked at a department store. My mom stayed at home. And we did OK. Don't get me wrong - money was a concern of course and we had a strict budget, but we had our own house, clothes for school, toys, etc. I know I make a heck of a lot more than my folks did, but I still feel behind the 8-ball. I don't know what people do who only make 30k a year and raise kids. I really don't, and my heart goes out to them.

I know people who make less than we do, but live more lavishly because they live on credit cards. We don't do that. If we can't afford something now, we don't get it. So we actually seem to have a lower standard of living than some of our friends who choose to live in debt.

[NeedleCast]

25. Dave's combined house income

might be in the upper 10%, but does that take into account number of dependants? I'd venture to say that I probably can afford a lot more in personal luxury/entertainment on my base salary of 56K as a single guy than Dave can on 120K with four dependants. I don't mean to speak for you DangerDave, but it seems logical.

I keep hearing that the middle class has/will collapse but I keep not seeing it. Maybe it's my region, as I said in the OP, but the vast majority of my friends fall into what I would define as middle class and not many of them seem to be struggling except one or two dumbasses who have quite clearly over-extended themselves by thinking that making 50-70K a year means you can afford the mortgage on a 350,000 dollar house and two entry level luxury cars/SUVs.

[Two Americas]

30. where are you?

Often there can be desperate poverty right under our noses but we somehow don't "see" it.

[The2ndWheel]

5. It means making sure energy is cheap

Because if it isn't, there won't be a middle class.

However, it's not all just candy and gumdrops when it comes to making sure the energy is cheap. If the energy is cheap, there can be a middle class, but it will come at an environmental cost. Including if we green everything. Unfortunately, we live in physical reality, and there is that whole equal and opposite reaction thing.

Oh yeah, and in a globalizing world, that means a globalized middle class, which means the American middle class will get less. Also, by definition, there has to be a lower class. Not permanent, but a "middle" class requires a lower class. So we can't get rid of poverty.

I wouldn't say it's a catch phrase. Well, it is, but there is an actual way to protect the middle class. Make sure energy is cheap, and increase consumption. Again, we won't have a habitat if we keep doing that, but it's either that or take down the whole class system. Ha!

[OHdem10]

6. Are you part of the majority 3/4 of the country who earns under

70 Thousand Dollars annually?(as a family0

If you make 75,000 dollars annually as an individual, you are most
likely upper middle class.

I believe they are speaking to the first grouup(masses) 3/4 of the
country who have lost ground. Average Incomes continue to drop
Salaries have dropped about 1300 dollars in this group over last
5 years. Often when they lose a good paying job, the next one
will pay one-third less. The jobs do not offer benefits.
They are being crushed by Trade Policy and Outsourcing.

Actually, we could lose Middle Class and therefore lose Democracy.
This is so serious because it is the majority of our country.

[NeedleCast]

10. I make under 75K

With bonuses this year I made in the low 60s. However I spend anywhere from 150 to 250 days a year traveling on the governments dime, which involves "free" per-diem money that ranges from 39 to 69 dollars a day depending on what city I'm in and this allows me to stretch my salary a lot further (because when I'm on the road, my bills at the house stay low, I'm not paying for gasoline, etc).

Do you have a link to the mean-salary droppage that you indicated above? I'd like to see that, especially if it has a regional breakdown.

Maybe it's my region and the fact that the IT and government services industries in the D.C. area remain strong where they might not in other locations around the country but I and the majority of my friends fall into the under 75K middle class and I have to say most of us don't feel very threatened. It just got me curious as to what this whole "protect the middle class" theme from the candidates was really about...substance or a pretty catch-phrase.

[NeedleCast]

I make under 75K

With bonuses this year I made in the low 60s. However I spend anywhere from 150 to 250 days a year traveling on the governments dime, which involves "free" per-diem money that ranges from 39 to 69 dollars a day depending on what city I'm in and this allows me to stretch my salary a lot further (because when I'm on the road, my bills at the house stay low, I'm not paying for gasoline, etc).

Do you have a link to the mean-salary droppage that you indicated above? I'd like to see that, especially if it has a regional breakdown.

Maybe it's my region and the fact that the IT and government services industries in the D.C. area remain strong where they might not in other locations around the country but I and the majority of my friends fall into the under 75K middle class and I have to say most of us don't feel very threatened. It just got me curious as to what this whole "protect the middle class" theme from the candidates was really about...substance or a pretty catch-phrase.

[NeedleCast]

11. I make under 75K

With bonuses this year I made in the low 60s. However I spend anywhere from 150 to 250 days a year traveling on the governments dime, which involves "free" per-diem money that ranges from 39 to 69 dollars a day depending on what city I'm in and this allows me to stretch my salary a lot further (because when I'm on the road, my bills at the house stay low, I'm not paying for gasoline, etc).

Do you have a link to the mean-salary droppage that you indicated above? I'd like to see that, especially if it has a regional breakdown.

Maybe it's my region and the fact that the IT and government services industries in the D.C. area remain strong where they might not in other locations around the country but I and the majority of my friends fall into the under 75K middle class and I have to say most of us don't feel very threatened. It just got me curious as to what this whole "protect the middle class" theme from the candidates was really about...substance or a pretty catch-phrase.

[Bill McBlueState]

9. it's an easy way to get everyone on your side

Almost everyone *thinks* he or she is middle class. So it's a good way to talk about your economic plan without alienating anyone.

What I would like to see is a discussion about what the candidates can do for poor people, but it's not politically correct to acknowledge that there are poor people.

[stray cat]

14. Health insurance, education, social security, medicaid, pension security

basically any government program not geared to putting money in the pocket of corporations. In a nutshell almost everything anti-Bush.

[SoCalDem]

15. Phrases like that are just like "putting food on your family"

just words.. any sentient person knows that a politician an only "say" what they would like to see happen. Their chances of actually making something happen, in real life..are slimmer than ever.

The public can no longer agree on what is "good for the nation". We have devolved into camps / tribes/ factions..whatever you want to call them.

For just about every amorphous sound-byte uttered by a candidate, there is an immediate, and opposite opinion/proposal.

What we all end up with it hopelessly compromised, mealymouthed, legalistic legislation that bears little, if any resemblance to helpful laws for the masses. The only beneficiaries these days, are the lobbyists who probably wrote the bills.

If republicans campaigned on their core beliefs, they would never get elected..

Even democrats would have a hard time getting elected , since we are a diverse group with many goals. Even though we are probably a real majority, each small group within us is not in agreement with the other groups..and lately we are more splintered than ever because of our divisive, narrowminded media.

[blindpig]

19. There is no Middle Class

There is only the Working Class and the Capitalist. The whole concept of the Middle Class is a divide and conquer stratagem. Even if you make 100K at your job you are still a worker and have more in common with the $10 per hour worker than you do with those whose income is derived from owning things.

[NeedleCast]

22. Sure there is

I may have more in common with someone making 10 bucks an hour than someone worth millions, but to say suggest there's not a difference is ludicrous.

I'm very well aware that there's a difference between those at an ownership level as the company I work for was recently sold to an major international. The CEO and other board members/officers made in the range of 10-15 million when the company was sold. They shopped for new jet skis, bigger houses and luxary sedans for Christmas and I bought 20 dollar gift cards.

What defines the middle class may be a vague area, but suggesting that there isn't one is silly.

[blindpig]

26. You've learned your lessons well.

The Man must be so proud.

This is why we can't get anywhere. As long as workers, all workers, do not realize their common bond and recognize the artificial divisions created for us we're dancing to the Man's tune.

[NeedleCast]

27. You too

Is that chapter one of the socialist handbook or did you have to read deeper into the manifesto?

Look, I can be snarky too!

[blindpig]

31. Yeah

Suppose I was a little snarky, nonetheless, I stand by the essence of my statement.

Socialists? Yeah, you bet.

[Two Americas]

33. either by number or by dollars

Whether you use numbers or dollars to measure it, the notion that there is still a middle class is misleading at best. By numbers of people, the "middle" is way down and dropping. $30,000 annual income is the "middle" by that measurement, and that certainly does not afford the life traditionally considered to be middle class, especially when so much of the infrastructure and community and public facilities that once existed for the protection and sustenance of the average citizen is now gone. Looking at the upper 10% of the people measured by annual household income $90,000 and above - they are bunched at the lower end - between $90,000 and $150,000, and as Dave points out here, when you are raising a family and hoping to send your kids to college, and hoping you don't get downsized and lose your health care, that type of income is not what it once was. People like Dave have more insecurity and anxiety than my Grandfather did 40 years ago working in the auto plant, and he could raise the family on one income, his kids went to college, and he was never at risk of losing his home or not being able to get medical care. And Dave is doing far better than most.

So where is this middle? There are still some suburban pockets here and there where you can cherish the illusion of a strong and vibrant middle class, but that requires ignoring the blue collar workers who come in and work to support that lifestyle for the few, as well as things such as the eldercare facilities every mile or so warehousing the lonely and the forgotten.

What we associate with the term middle class - as so well portrayed by TV commercials - is only available to perhaps 10% of the population any more. Everyone else has been erased from our view. We look at them, but right through them.

[redqueen]

21. Co-opting the bourgeois?

:shrug:

[Horse with no Name]

32. You are aware that there are divisions of the Middle Class?

Fussell outlines these superbly in his book "Class" (a must read).
There are "high" "middle" and "low" proletariat divisions of the middle class.
It sounds as if you are on the "high" side of the middle class.
I fall squarely "middle" middle.
However, the lower middle class risk falling into the poor class by definition of living paycheck to paycheck, not having health insurance, etc.
When they fall...then I risk falling into the low middle class and you risk falling to the middle.
If the cycle keeps repeating itself, it perpetuates poverty.
It is imperative to protect the middle class.